THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE

An agreeable and evocative trip down Memory Lane with an erstwhile prodigy who, in a variety of posts including the presidency of NBC, left an enduring mark on commercial broadcasting as well as on the enterprises that provide its financial support. Focusing on a 25-year span that began in 1932, when he went to work for the CBS radio station in L.A., Weaver recalls a varied, creative career that took him to many a high-profile post. Early on, as a top hand at Young & Rubicam, he was responsible for producing network programs starring the likes of Fred Allen (one of whose writers was Herman Wouk), Kate Smith, Phil Baker, and Goodman Ace. Moving from the advertising agency to American Tobacco, he helped revive the flagging market fortunes of Lucky Strike cigarettes, only to return to Y&R after WW II service as skipper of a US Navy sub-chaser. Subsequently recruited by NBC, Weaver helped shape TV during its formative years, putting on the air such landmark programming as Your Show of Shows and the ever-popular Today Show and Tonight Show. In the process, he helped wrest program ownership from the ad agencies; instituted multiple sponsorship of telecasts; pioneered public-service programming (including news coverage); and otherwise tried to ensure that the fledgling medium met its social/cultural obligations. Constant battles with David Sarnoff (the autocratic head of FCA—NBC's parent organization) took their toll, however, and, in 1956, the author left the network. While Weaver has little to say here about an evidently happy personal life (he's the father of Sigourney) or his post-NBC activities, he offers an amiable, anecdotal chronicle throughout. A low-key rerun, then, that's well worth catching. (Sixteen pages of photographs, many of which appear to be candid shots from family albums—not seen)